I don't know if you all saw it, but the NY Times ran a piece on Tokyo's ramen culture back in January (here). Ramen in Japan is not the carboard ramen noodles that we have in the U.S. Ramen is a dish that came over from China, and it involves thin noodles in a broth often topped with meats and veggies. There are different kinds of ramen broths: some with pork bases, some with seafood bases, etc. The places that sell ramen are often just counters where you order a bowl and you stand while eating. In the case of those places mentioned by the NY Times, they're actual restaurants, albeit without menus, without signs, and definitely without English spoken or written anywhere.
And so I decided to set off and find one of the places tonight. You can see the front of the restaurant in the image above and that the sign is in Japanese. I was shocked that we found it since it's a part of town we've never seen and we can't read the maps. This place, Ikaruga, is known for their tonkatsu (pork)-based broth. It's a little thick and very flavorful. Typically, there are soft-boiled eggs in ramen, and in this case there were also pork slices, some burdock root, some nori (seaweed), and some green onions. Heaven.
As much as I'm getting an architectural education while I'm over here, my secret motive is to try all the food for which Japan and its regions are known. I think I'm doing a bang-up job so far.
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